MBYS 09

Chapter 9

 My Property (1)

It had been less than a day since Kailus left the castle, but the atmosphere of the residence had already changed.

“Here is your meal.”

A heavy thud echoed through the room as the maid set the tray down roughly on the nightstand.

Eveline’s eyes swept over the tray. On it lay a few pieces of black bread hardened like rocks, alongside lukewarm, cooled soup covered in a pale film of grease.

“Is this… all?”

Eveline barely managed to open her mouth.

A sneer flickered across the maid’s lips. Releasing her politely clasped hands, she crooked her leg in a slant, completely ruining her posture.

“We’re short-handed in the kitchen,” the maid snapped bluntly.

“If you really dislike it, leave it. Isn’t it all His Highness’s property anyway? They say he spent as much as ten thousand gold on your ransom, right? Would anyone even notice if a few pieces of bread went to waste?”

To them, Eveline didn’t seem to be treated even as a guest.

“…Leave it and go.”

Eveline lowered her gaze as she spoke. The maid turned her back without even a slight bow.

The door slammed shut violently. From beyond the door, sharp mockery leaked inside.

“Doesn’t even know her place.”

Eveline stared at the closed door. Before long, she reached her hand toward the tray. The black bread was as rock-hard as ever.

She dipped a piece of the bread into a glass of water.

Waiting until the bread became soggy and limp in the water, she pushed it into her mouth. She felt a surge of nausea at the taste of the wet bread, but she had to eat to survive.

Eveline forced the bread down her throat. However, the meal wasn’t the only issue.

The air in the room was frozen, no different from the outdoors. The fireplace was cold, and every time she exhaled, puffs of white breath drifted out.

After barely finishing her meal, Eveline stepped out into the hallway, shivering all over. Just then, a maid carrying a linen basket was walking toward her from the opposite direction.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

The maid stopped in her tracks.

“The firewood in my room has completely run out. Could you please fetch some firewood?”

“The butler holds the key to the storeroom.”

“Then please speak to the butler…”

“He is currently out of the castle attending to His Highness’s supplies.”

It was an obvious lie.

“Besides, the North is cold by nature,” the maid clicked her tongue and sarcastically added. “His Highness is currently out in this blizzard fighting through an overnight subjugation. Isn’t complaining about something as minor as a cold room a luxury?”

It was a manifestation of warped loyalty. They could not forgive a stranger who was being protected in a warm room while their master was fighting for his life outside.

Despising Eveline—who had been brought in for money and was merely occupying space—was their own version of justice.

“Having grown up as a noble, you sure throw a big fuss over nothing. If you’re that cold, just huddle under a blanket. It’s not like you have anything to do anyway.”

The maid twisted her lips and turned her back on her.

A self-deprecating, hollow chuckle leaked through Eveline’s lips.

In their eyes, Eveline must seem like nothing more than a parasite gnawing away at Kailus’s wealth. They certainly wouldn’t guess in their wildest dreams the truth—that she was sustaining him by shaving away her own life force to keep him alive.

‘Right, let them misunderstand. There is nothing I can do right now anyway…!’

Eveline turned around with staggering steps, lacking strength.

Soon, her feet brought her to the study. As she closed the door, the heavy scent of books and a deep silence wrapped around her.

Taking out a book, she opened it and curled up deep inside the sofa.

It appeared to be a book dealing with history, but a sudden surge of pain blurred her vision, and the printed letters jumbled together dizzyingly.

Her body curled into a ball on its own from the rushing agony. Even though Kailus was not by her side, the pain, far from subsiding, only grew fiercer. It was because her accumulated hunger, the cold that penetrated to her bones, and the relentless stress had reached their limits.

‘I have to endure it. The medicine… I must save it…’

Cold sweat poured out from the pain, and her vision flickered on and off.

In the end, Eveline pulled a brown bottle out from her breast pocket.

Dropping the medicine under her tongue, her tongue went numb from the bitterness. Soon, a hazy aura invaded her, and the pain dulled.

Eveline buried her body into the sofa. She had no way to overcome her eyelids, which had grown heavy as lead under the effect of the medicine.

After taking the medicine, she spent most of her days sleeping like a corpse like this.

Thus, she spent more than half of the week half-conscious, intoxicated by the effects of the drug.

Her body withered away, losing its vitality.

It was around the time when her sense of time began to fade away. The door to the study burst open.

“Phew…”

A cold wind carrying the scent of blood rushed in. Eveline startled and pushed herself up.

It was Kailus.

The sunken contours around his eyes, the rough stubble on his face, and the terrible exhaustion and scent of blood oozing from his entire body spoke for the gruesome reality of the battlefield he had experienced.

“Have you returned?”

Eveline extended her hand toward him. A sharp wave of mana was transmitted to her.

However, Kailus dodged her body.

“That’s enough.”

He scanned Eveline up and down.

“What is with that state of yours?”

His gaze locked onto her gaunt wrists and hollow eyes.

“Are the nutritional supplements completely ineffective? Why does your complexion look like this?”

Eveline lowered her gaze. She had certainly taken them without skipping. It was just that what she took wasn’t nutritional supplements.

“…It is because I am tired.”

“Don’t lie.”

Kailus merely let out a short click of his tongue and probed her no further, as he too was in a state that had reached its limit.

Throwing off the cloak he was wearing, he walked heavily toward the sofa.

“Sit.”

He pressed down on Eveline’s shoulders to make her sit.

“…Your Highness?”

Before she could pull together her embarrassment, a heavy head fell onto her thighs as if dropping down.

As if he had found his own pillow, he leaned comfortably against her legs and closed his eyes.

“My head is ringing. Just… let me sleep for a bit.”

A deep exhaustion was embedded in his voice.

Eveline froze stiff on the spot, unable to twitch even a single finger.

The firm weight pressing down on her thighs.

Holding even her breath, Eveline silently looked down at him. His rough breathing gradually settled down into a steady rhythm. The space between his brows, which had been tightly creased, had also smoothed out comfortably before she realized it.

Enchanted, Eveline reached out her hand, only to stop it mid-air. She wanted to touch him, but she did not dare to do so. Withdrawing her hand that had lost its place, she turned her gaze toward the window.

It was a dazzlingly peaceful scenery.

The anxiety that had shackled her for the past week scattered like a lie. Merely from the fact that the sound of his breathing was by her side.

Eveline slowly closed her eyes.

How much time had passed? Kailus opened his eyes.

His red eyes, cleared of their bloodshot tint, shone brightly.

Getting up, he stretched out. Every time he moved, a rough cracking sound echoed as his joints aligned.

Massaging her numb leg, Eveline asked, “Did you sleep well?”

“Thanks to you.”

Kailus answered shortly and scanned Eveline up and down. His gaze landed on her worn indoor clothes.

The frayed sleeves and the lint-covered hem of her skirt. It was a shabby appearance that hadn’t changed in the slightest from a week ago, before he left the residence.

He grabbed Eveline’s sleeve. Through the rough, cheap fabric, the texture of her gaunt wrist bone was transmitted in full.

Kailus’s pupils trembled subtly. He shifted his gaze from her wrist to the hollow bags under her eyes.

Even though she was a living person breathing right in front of his eyes, the fact that he couldn’t feel any weight to her at all struck him as immensely strange.

“Tsk.”

He let out a short click of his tongue. A surge of irritable annoyance welled up, but its target was by no means Eveline.

“Where are your clothes?”

His voice sank low.

“I mean the clothes. Before leaving, I clearly instructed for dresses and jewelry to be custom-ordered for you.”

Not knowing the reason, Eveline merely blinked her eyes and replied in a crawling voice:

“…I haven’t received anything.”

“…What?”

“Other than a single worn-out blanket… I haven’t received anything.”

In an instant, the faint warmth resting in Kailus’s pupils evaporated without a trace. The languid air transformed into a razor-sharp blade in a flash, and a bone-chilling intent to kill silently swept through the study.

It took only a moment for him to grasp the situation.

It wasn’t that she had intentionally chosen not to wear them. No, from the very beginning, there were no clothes for her to wear.

“Ha.”

A hollow chuckle burst from between Kailus’s lips. The corners of his mouth twisted, carving out a chilling, cold smile.

“They’ve completely lost their fear.”

Kailus violently stood up from his seat. In an instant, his massive shadow cast over Eveline as if to swallow her whole.

“Albert!”

A thunderous shout ripped through the air of the silent study all at once. Immediately following, urgent running footsteps echoed noisily from the hallway outside the door.

Without hesitation, he strode forward with large steps and commanded, “Follow me.”

Eveline hesitated and followed behind him timidly.

The central hall on the first floor of the Grand Ducal Residence.

Dozens of servants who had been summoned stood gathered, their complexions turned pale. They trembled, not even daring to raise their heads.

Leaning against the staircase railing, Kailus looked down at them coldly. Standing beside him, Eveline swallowed her dry spit out of tension, not even knowing what was going on.

Only a heavy silence lingered inside the hall, so dense that not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

“It seems my orders were quite funny to you all.”